Explosions Rock UO Campus Monday Morning

On the first morning back from winter break the University of Oregon campus community experienced a series of explosions. The booms and resulting smoke were traced to an underground tunnel which houses the electrical power system.

The University of Oregon experienced power outages in several buildings Monday.

Credit Visitor7 / Wikimedia Commons

UO spokeswoman Julie Brown says it's likely a transformer blew up. Brown says power is off in the residence halls.

"Most of them are without power at this point. So we are looking at how we can get power back as quickly as possible, whether that's by generator or fixing the main system that our campus operations is working on right now."

Brown says the University Health Center was evacuated as a precaution because the explosions occurred near that building. Brown says no one was hurt in the explosions.